


End of the World

by glassdemons



Category: Elder Scrolls
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:15:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27511390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glassdemons/pseuds/glassdemons
Summary: Finally, finally, Mannimarco has won.
Relationships: Vanus Galerion/Mannimarco
Kudos: 6





	End of the World

As the knife finally slipped between Vanus's ribs, Mannimarco allowed himself a brief moment of relief. The great wizard's magicka was flowing into his own, easing the exhaustion of the battle, just enough.

Vanus coughed and spluttered, falling to his knees, making no effort to remove the knife. "Poison," he wheezed. "Really? You would--you'd stoop so low?"

His body convulsed, spasming. Mannimarco smirked, watching the paralysis take effect. A spell for it would have been warded. His rival had expected him to prove his magical superiority, not to lure him in just enough to pull a blade. The sky above them crackled and groaned, so loudly that the earth shook, unbalancing Vanus, making him fall into the dirt, still hacking up his own blood, trying to fight off the paralysis that would drown him before he could use a healing spell. 

Mannimarco looked up at the anchor, then back down to Vanus. He sat beside the dying mage, pulling him onto his lap to push aside the blood and sweat soaked hair clinging to Vanus's face. A few had been hastily healed into a gash that Mannimarco was quite proud of landing on him. 

"Why?" Vanus wheezed through clenching jaws, eyes bulging and frantically searching Mannimarco's face. 

"The Lord of Domination shall have a new name," he answered with a smile. Vanus's eyelid twitched, his anger palpable. "Come now, Vanus. Don't blame yourself. The world ending isn't something I'd let you take credit for."

Vanus's face froze in a snarl, a scream coming from within his closed mouth, unable to articulate. His every breath was an animalistic grunt, and yet, in his mind, he was crying. This was not the only failure that would give Mannimarco ground. So long ago, when he had seen the path the necromancer was going down, he should have taken matters into his own hands. He should have helped Mannimarco. 

He should have killed him when there was a Mannimarco left to kill. 

This thing, this foul lich smiling so gently at him, was not his friend. He had lost all but the worst of himself along the way. 

As if reading his mind, Mannimarco said, "I suppose I do owe part of my success to you, though. You traitor." Even with the anger that tinged his usually--or perhaps, once--calm voice, Vanus could hear the slightest bit of hurt, too, the very last piece of humanity lost to this vengeance on the world that had forsaken him. Mannimarco sighed, shaking his head ever so slightly. "But, no matter. I'll make this world my own. Your Artaeum, but better in every regard. Pity you're not going to live to see it." He wiped a tear from the corner of Vanus's eye with his gloved thumb. 

Vanus's breaths came slower now. Mannimarco made no effort to move as chains shot down around them. Vanus was the sacrifice. His eyes rolled back in head, foam starting to mix with the blood pooling from the corners of his mouth. This, too, Mannimarco gently and delicately cleaned away.

"Not much longer, Vanus," he said. "You've put up a good fight, but this was inevitable. You were surrounded by your betters, and still, you came alone." He almost laughed at this, exhaling sharply. "Let yourself give in. I will make a superior Nirn the likes of Sil could only dream of. May knowing this be a comfort to you."

His ears were ringing, much worse at the thought of Mannimarco having complete control over the lives of millions, putting them through the most hellish of lives just to be slaughtered when convenient for his own amused benefit. Vanus struggled to look at Mannimarco, but his vision was swimming. For a second, it felt as though he was waking up in his dorm, and they were children again, and the whole future could be anything but what it was. 

Then, screaming so hard from the effort that his vocal cords surely ripped, Vanus jerked his hand up to Mannimarco's chest, launching a fireball through his dead heart as he pulled the energy of his soul out of the body. There was a second, Mannimarco looking down on him, just the way he looked when he first saw Vanus after his banishment, hurt and confused, before he collapsed as well, folding on top of Vanus. The anchor responded immediately, the energy being pulled from a body that would have otherwise regenerated, leaving an empty husk on top of Vanus, bleeding onto him with a sulfuric smell, stinging him as it seeped through his clothes.

He heard a scream of horror, but couldn't place the voice. He struggled to move, to wrap his arms around Mannimarco one last time, but the action was far too demanding. He felt the tension of the poison beginning to pass into nausea, and the blurry vision turned dark as the ringing crescendoed into a roar.


End file.
